Rosmyrta
by FirebrandWilson
Summary: Weiss has a new sword and some bad dreams. Rated T for violence though there's no bad language. I have most of it written already and will be posting it later. Please tell me if you like it.
1. Chapter 1

_Thuck, thuck, thuck,_ that awful sound filled her head, haunting her dreams while she fought to push it away. _Shuck, shuck, shuck_ , another sound came to her, more terrible than the last, and a warm and wet feeling hit the back of her hand. "Goodbye, Weiss."

Weiss sat bolt upright, her eyes dripping and a dead weight filling her stomach. "I'm here," she reminded herself for the third time that night, "I'm okay." A flash of lightning outside made her shriek and she pulled the rough blanket up over her face. It was raining again.

With a deep breath, she pushed the blanket away and got to her feet, tiptoeing around the silver and scarlet rapier leaning against her mattress. The small room was fine for tonight, she thought, but she knew she couldn't stay. Now that Rosmyrta was finished she had to keep moving lest she be caught and, if she imagined correctly, beaten to death.

Weiss made it to the bathroom and compulsively washed her hands, ridding herself of the warm feeling she'd just suffered through for another few minutes. She reached up and scrubbed the mirror clean before staring into her own silver eyes. She shrieked again and tumbled backwards into the door, calling on her semblance to shield her. But the longer she looked through the snowflake shield that crackled in the air before her, the more she realized it was just part of that same nightmare. She stood again, this time with more nerve, and stared into her own blue eyes. "You're alright," she said to herself, pulling down her eyelids and examining the red lines in her eyes. "You're okay." She splashed water into her face and let it drip down, washing away some of the tears that still threatened to stain her.

In a slow, practiced movement, she glided back over to her bed and sat down, pulling out her scroll one last time before trying to sleep. 4 am, only a few more hours here and she was gone. The screen blinked at her a few times and she saw the indicators telling her what she'd missed in the last hour of sleep: Two missed calls from BFF Ruby Rose, three from BFS Yang Xiao Long, and a message, "Where are you?" from BFSP Blake Belladonna. The phone blinked again and read, "Location deactivated. Would you like to activate location?"

"Nope," she said with a sigh, tucking herself back in. Just a few more hours.

...

Weiss blinked and held a hand up to the sky, shielding her scroll from the sunlight. "Are you sure we're going the right way?" she said above the sound of whipping wind. Her partner, a taller, but also slightly more unkempt woman, sat in the driver's seat, taping a paper map to the dashboard as she sped across the relatively empty highway.

"We're fine," she said, pulling her black hair behind her ears, "I've been here before."

"Because you've gotten us lost before," Weiss finished.

"Pssh, you wanna drive, princess? I seem to remember you getting us lost a few times as well."

Weiss shot the woman a somewhat cold look and opened her hand, summoning a small fragment of silver in her palm to check her reflection. She was practically perfect today, as she was most days, and had her pristine white hair pulled back and tied short, the way she preferred it for most of her hunts. "I've never gotten lost on anything important," she said.

"What, Cinder wasn't important?"

"I wasn't driving then," she said.

"Only navigating."

"I'm only saying," Weiss said, eager to change the subject, "we've been driving for hours and my scroll's losing signal. If we take too long, we'll have to face this thing in the dark and I-"

"Found it," shouted her partner, veering the car haphazardly to one side. She pulled onto a small dirt road that cut through a dense forest, the selfsame variety that covered most of Vale, and smiled brightly at Weiss, who was now glaring back at her.

"I hope you know where you're going, Ruby," Weiss said helplessly, again pondering her reflection, "because we just lost signal."

"Yang knows where we are; besides we'll be fine. We'll get this done quick and I'll treat us to some burgers back in the city."

Weiss unsummoned her mirror and looked over at Ruby. "Don't be too casual," she said. "You remember the report. We don't even know what this thing is."

"Some kind of Geist, right?" Ruby asked, her voice becoming darker. "We've killed Geists before."

"Not for sixty-thousand lien, Ruby," Weiss said, locking eyes with her. "Not for half that. I've never _heard_ of a kill mission that expensive."

"So it's a _big_ Geist," Ruby said. "Maybe a _really_ big one. Worst case scenario, Yang and Blake show up tomorrow and we split the reward with them." Weiss gave her a nervous look, one she noticed. "Look," she said with a frown, holding out her hand, "it's going to be okay; _we're_ going to be okay. In ten years, we have literally never failed a mission."

Weiss sighed and took her outstretched hand, squeezing it gently. "I know," she said, "I'm just worried, is all. The report says it didn't even kill people, they killed themselves."

"I know what it says." Ruby pulled the car off the trail, slowing to a halt in a small grove marked with the usual sign warning people of Grimm. "This is our stop."

Weiss cross-checked the map on her scroll with the one taped to the dashboard and nodded. "Just stick together and we'll be fine," Weiss said. "And keep your eyes open."


	2. Chapter 2

_Thuck, thuck, thuck, shuck, shuck, shuck._ Weiss woke with a start, retching as something rotten threatened to crawl up her throat. She spun off the bed, clutching her neck and fighting to see her way to the bathroom through her tears. "I'm okay," she said minutes later, glaring at her reflection in the mirror and washing her hands. "I'm fine." Her reflection stared back at her, tired and anything like the person she'd grown accustomed to. She had the same eyes, same lips, same scar, but something _underneath_ , something _inside_ was horribly, horribly wrong.

Weiss straightened up and looked at her wealth of pale white hair, deciding immediately that she'd have to dye it and maybe cut it. It was too noticeable in the sea of brown and grey haired citizens. That idea sickened her but she'd told herself from the start it was an occupational hazard and she may have needed to change it. She quickly brushed her teeth and gathered her things, changing into the pair of muddy brown clothes she'd bought yesterday and throwing the rest of her tattered white hunting uniform into her satchel.

With a final glance at her scroll, three new calls, she left, making her way past the front of the inn and into the rainy streets. She held a hand to the open air and took another deep breath. The rain would be terrible for her travels, especially if she was on foot, but it would be wonderful at washing her hands on the road.

"Excuse me," she said to a man monitoring what appeared to be a small bus station, "do you know when the next bus will arrive?"

"Depends on where you're headed," the man said in response.

 _Anywhere not here_ , she thought. "Away from central Vale," she said, feigning a smile, "I'm heading south toward the border to Vacuo."

The man looked thoughtful for a minute before turning back to her and shaking his head. "We don't get a lot of traffic from that direction so the bus won't be here for another few days. It'd be best if you had a car."

"I see," Weiss said, still feigning the same smile and turning away from him. She didn't have time to wait that long. She didn't like the thought of being ground to a paste.

"You're not planning on walking, are you?" the man asked, dumbstruck. "It's a hundred miles to the next village that way and the land's filled with Grimm."

"I don't plan on walking," she lied, still leaving.

"Wait, please," the man pointed to her sword, Rosmyrta, "are you a huntress? We have dire need of a huntress in these parts. We share a bounty mission with central Vale. A Geist has been tracked to the forests around here."

She didn't turn back, instead holding out her hands to let the rain rinse them clean.

...

"Three down," Ruby said, leveling her scythe behind her and facing the next Ursa. Weiss soared in from the side, cutting the creature clean in half with a single stroke and immediately dropping to one knee to let Ruby cut the one behind her. They continued, whirling in a dance of white and scarlet blades, each covering the others weaknesses and balancing their styles together flawlessly. The fight went well, so well in fact that when Ruby leapt with joy afterward, Weiss couldn't help but high-five her. "And score one for the White Rose," Ruby said, bumping elbows with Weiss. "I kinda like fighting with you."

"I certainly hope so," Weiss said, brushing off her skirt and returning Ruby's smile. "We've fought together too long for you to change partners now." She spun Myrtenaster's cylinder and checked the hammer. "I'm good on dust," she said. "How're you?"

"Fine," Ruby said, "I didn't need any for these guys." Ruby squatted down in the mud and brushed some grime from a log to place her map down. Weiss stood a few inches off the ground beside her, supported by her snowflake glyphs, and passed Ruby a pen. "Alright, that's the third place we tracked it to," she said, marking the map with a large "X." "The trail's hazy around here but those," she pointed to a nearby pair of boulders that had been recently upturned, "are consistent with Geist activity so at least we're on track."

"It's getting dark," Weiss said, glancing up at the barely visible sky, "we should consider making camp."

"And miss a fight in a pitch-black forest? Not on your life." Weiss gave her a flat stare and she shrugged. "On second thought, yeah, a nap sounds nice. We'll still have time in the morning before Yang and Blake get here."

The two set up a small camp at the edge of the clearing, placing their backs to one of the upturned boulders and hiding their fire in between the two. Weiss was seated on another of her glyphs and busied herself with milling the edge of a brown dust crystal while listening to the birds chirping and watching the forest get dark. She carefully measured the powder in her hand and unscrewed the top of a water bottle, pouring the dust in and focusing intently on the bottle. Another of her glyphs appeared in her hand, rotating quickly until she was satisfied.

She stood and with a small hop, propelled herself to the top of the boulder where Ruby stood, scanning the trees. "Drink this," Weiss said before taking a long gulp from the bottle.

Ruby drank gratefully before passing it back. "What's in it?"

"Earth dust."

"Oh, great. I just drank dirt."

Weiss shook her head. "I used time dilation on it," she said. "That, mixed with earth dust should slow your metabolism…"

"Speak Remnant, Weiss," Ruby said, cutting her off.

Weiss made a confused face at her and shook her head. "It's really not that complicated," she said. "You won't get hungry for about twelve hours."

Ruby smiled. "Because I didn't bring rations."

"We'll be back in time for burgers," Weiss mocked in a poor imitation of Ruby's voice. "We don't need rations." Something shuddered in the trees and she stopped speaking. She and Ruby held their breath, both looking out to the forest and silently hoping it was just a bird.

"Drop!" Ruby shouted, throwing herself and Weiss down as a head-sized rock soared over them. "Move right!"

Weiss did as she was ordered and glided around to the right of their camp while Ruby scrambled left. _This is it_ , she thought, steeling herself for the fight. She and Ruby had been fighting together for years. They'd grown together, they'd travelled together; they'd even saved the world together. This was just another mission. This was nothing. Just one Geist.

She rounded the corner and leveled her sword as her heart dropped. One Geist and about forty Beowolves.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thuck, thuck, thuck, shuck, shuck, shuck._ Weiss slipped from her dash, cascading across dirt and rock before slamming into a fallen tree. There she huddled, clutching her hip and fighting back more tears. She'd fallen, for a moment, back into the nightmare of blood and sorrow and it was costing her precious seconds. She stared at her hands, still red and warm, and scrubbed them furiously with dirt and what rain still dribbled from the sky.

Her scroll buzzed and she tore it out too fast, forgetting that she was still under the effects of time dilation. Four new calls, two new messages: "Please let us help you," from Blake. "I will find you," from Yang. She shuddered, almost dropping the phone before checking that her location symbol was still off. It wasn't.

"No!" she screamed, hammering the scroll with semblance-enhanced speed. "How?" She flipped it off but a dead weight fell over her shoulders. It didn't matter now. They'd seen where she was going. She was going to be caught.

Weiss took in a deep breath, checked her dust reserves and sped off, spacing her glyphs out to sustain a dash. "Thirty miles left," she told herself. "I'm still ahead."

…

"Ruby get back!" Weiss shouted, holding out her right hand and opening her summoning glyph. Her partner dashed around her in a whirl and she drew an enormous blade from her glyph, sweeping it across the field of armored Grimm and cutting a swath for Ruby to follow up. And she did.

Unbidden, Ruby soared through the open line of Grimm and spun her crescent blade through them, gracefully hacking off limbs and heads while keeping her eyes on her partner. "Do you see it?" Ruby shouted amidst the shattering Beowolves.

"Not yet!" Wiess returned, jamming Myrtenaster through a Grimm while sweeping the giant sword through several. This wasn't right. What she'd thought was forty Grimm had quickly turned to sixty, then a hundred, then more. They flowed endlessly through the trees, guided here by some unnatural, possibly intelligent drive to destroy them. The more they cut down, the more would come out and the ones that did were stronger; tougher than the wave before them. On top of that, their target, the Geist, seemed to pop in and out of existence. One minute it was visible above the pack, the next it would vanish into the sea of black and red. It didn't possess any rocks or trees, it just vanished.

Weiss spun Myrtenaster's cylinder and jammed it into the floor, firing golden bolts of electricity before her in an erratic line. Thirty minutes of hard fighting had left her near exhausted and she knew she couldn't keep up this pace for much longer. "Weiss, Thorns!" Ruby shouted, leaping into the air. She vanished above the trees but Weiss knew instinctively where she'd land, opening a propulsion glyph just above the center of the pack and using Myrtenaster to blast the glyph with ice. But then something strange happened. One of the Grimm turned to the sky, then to her and she felt a horrible sensation rise up her spine. _It knows_ , she thought. _How can it know?_

Sure enough, while Weiss stared, dumbstruck, the pack separated, forming lines and walling smaller Grimm behind larger ones. They made lanes for Ruby's attack to go through. In an instant they'd figured it out and moved to avoid it. Ruby slammed into the ground and ice shards flew in every direction, destroying trees, boulders, several Grimm and… flying straight at Weiss.

Exhausted as she was, Weiss couldn't do anything but watch as the large shard slammed into her hip, exploding against her aura and sending her spinning backwards from the clearing, smashing through several trees before sliding to a defeated halt some ways away. She could hear her partner screaming for her but couldn't find the strength to stand up. Lights were dancing in front of her face and she suddenly felt, for the first time she remembered, completely broken. Her aura was fading and spurts of agonizing pain shot through her body. How did this happen? This _never_ happened.

Then, realizing she hadn't been breathing, she took in a great gulp of air, choking on the acrid smell of blood. Her hip was open, bleeding profusely and blinding her with pain but when she touched it she gave a miniscule sigh of relief. It wasn't broken. She'd need medical attention but she'd be fine if she could just close it for now. Thinking fast, she pulled a vial of fire dust from her belt and put Myrtenaster's grip in her teeth before slowly emptying the vial across her wound.

Whatever she thought was painful before immediately fled from her mind as fire dust seared her bare, auraless skin. But through the screams and the tears, she concentrated, holding her glyph as steady as she could and making sure her hip closed correctly. A minute later she was done, a heap on the floor and an agonized wreck, but done.

She bit her lip as she pushed to her feet but upon checking her seared skin knew she'd hold until they got back to the city. She just couldn't fight anymore. "Ruby," she called weakly, pain barring her ability to really yell, "Ruby, fall back, I'm hurt!" She stumbled forward and fell against a tree, trying hard to pull herself together. Myrtenaster drooped low in her hand and she struggled to hold it as numbness flooded her fingers. "Ruby, please," she said weakly, collapsing further into the comforting tree, "I'm hurt. Please."

Several moments passed and she heard Ruby's scythe whistling through the trees, no doubt killing more Grimm in an attempt to reach her. Then finally the brush in front of her parted and she looked up, the blood draining from her face. A Beowolf thrice her size stalked up to her, its claws chewing through the dirt to get to her and its fangs dripping with hunger.

She levelled her sword at it despite her arms protesting forcefully and readied the hammer. But before she could strike it loped toward her, swatting her weapon aside as a man would do and hoisting her up in the air by her shoulders. She screamed but it slapped a paw over her mouth, knocking her almost senseless in the process. And then, as she stared into its deep red eyes, she realized something. It was the Geist. The Geist could possess _creatures_ and, if the reports of people dying to human weaponry were accurate, _humans_ too. This creature was going to possess her and Ruby was going to put her down.

She kicked with all the force she could muster and screamed as hard as she could through the furry paw but to no avail; she could already feel something sickly crawling through the inside of her head. She shook, trying to break free from the haze that was clouding her mind but it grew and grew, covering up her memories and burrowing into her spine.

"Get away from her!" she heard, and the thing trying to get inside her faded away. Weiss opened her eyes and watched Ruby pounce on the Grimm, slicing its arms off in a single stroke and slamming the spiked end of her scythe into its chest repeatedly. "Get! Off! My! Friend!" she screamed, each word punctuated by her weapon.

Weiss collapsed but tried desperately to reach out to Ruby. "It's there," she cried, her voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. "That's the Geist." Ruby turned to her but before she could even so much as speak, a shadow flew from the disintegrating Beowolf and latched itself onto her face. Ruby screamed and toppled over a downed tree, sliding down into a long ditch on the other side. Weiss watched in horror as flashes of silver light lit up the black forest around her while her partner struggled with the Grimm.

Ruby's screams became more intense and Weiss willed herself back onto her feet, pulling out a yellow dust cylinder and forcing it into her mouth. She swallowed the yellow powder, using what little of her semblance she had left to focus it, and retched as a burning sensation filled her body. Energy surged through her, blasting the numbness from her fingers and replacing it with newfound strength. Though she hated using this, it was now or never. Five minutes of pure energy was never more important.

"Ruby!" she shouted, vaulting over the log and sliding down the ditch to her partner. Ruby stood away from her, barely visible in the dim light, but the thought that she'd stopped struggling gave Weiss some small comfort. "Ruby," she said again, the lightning in her veins making her muscles twitch involuntarily, "are you okay? Where'd the Geist go?"

"W-Weiss," Ruby said, her voice strangled, "I…" She turned slowly and Weiss gasped in horror, watching tears stream down her partner's face and seeing the deep silver eyes corrupt into a hazy shade of red. "I lost." Ruby raised her arm jerkily, pointing her scythe directly at Weiss.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thuck, thuck, thuck, shuck, shuck, shuck._ Weiss dropped out of her dash, so close to her destination she could nearly see it. But as she looked up at the amazonian blonde woman who barred her path, she couldn't help but smile at the cruel irony of it. Lightning flashed overhead and the rain she'd been escaping came down again in force. At least it washed the tears from her eyes.

Someone else appeared behind her, shutting down her path back to the city. "Yang," the woman said, loud enough that all of them could hear her, "please, let's just hear her out." But Yang shook her head and Weiss could see she was biting her lip, probably holding back the same tears that now flooded Weiss' face. With a flick of her only arm, she tossed a thin, metal shard, the tip of Weiss' former weapon Myrtenaster, and Ruby's cracked scroll at Weiss' feet.

"You know where I found these?" she asked. Weiss looked down at her trembling hands. Even now that they were rubbed raw and cracking she could feel the same awful warmth from before and she wished the rain would come down harder and scrape off the last of her pain. "On her corpse," she said, her lip trembling and tears starting to betray her.

"Yang," Weiss said, her voice choked with tears.

"In the same place you left her," Yang continued. "You didn't even bury her." Weiss looked up at her former friend and started to speak. "You killed my _sister_!" Yang screamed, cutting her off. "You stabbed her in the _heart_! And, and, _left_ her!"

"Yang, please," the other woman said, taking a step forward, "we don't know what happened; we weren't there."

Yang held up an accusing finger. "Blake!" she roared, her eyes burning red. "Get out of my way! We came and we saw so either help me or _back off_!"

"Yang, stop," Blake said cautiously, moving to one side. "Weiss, please just tell us what happened. You wouldn't hurt Ruby."

Weiss felt like a hot knife had cut through her chest. She wouldn't hurt Ruby. But she did. Weiss turned toward Blake, tears still streaming from her eyes, pleading with herself to speak.

"You wouldn't hurt her, right?" Blake said.

Weiss' lip trembled.

"You didn't kill her, right?" Blake said, her ears drooping.

"I killed her," Weiss said finally.

…

"Ruby stop!" Weiss shouted, the lighting coursing through her allowing her to slide out of the way as Ruby slashed at her. The younger woman's moves had been erratic and somewhat less refined than she was used to but whatever force had control over her body was doing a good job of using it. "Ruby please!"

Weiss dodged a quick slice down and parried another to the left, throwing Ruby off balance enough to punch her hard across the face. "Snap out of it!" she yelled in a panic, shaking her hand and using the pause to size up her opponent. Ruby was about equal to her in most scenarios but excelled at close fighting like this. On top of that she had about twice as much stamina, meaning that once the electric dust wore off Weiss would be at a severe disadvantage. But Ruby's eyes still dripped tears and her face still contorted with each strike showing that she wasn't yet lost. She was still fighting back somewhere inside the husk of a body that struck at Weiss.

"W-Weiss," she croaked, her voice strangled. Her eyes hazed over briefly and she took another swing at her, this time less erratic and more focused. "Please."

Weiss ducked backwards and slid above the ground, balancing on her glyphs as she dodged each stroke with jerky but precise movements. Ruby was still slow enough that Weiss could counter her, a sign that the Geist didn't have access to her semblance, and her frequent lolls and dips in form were perfect opportunities for Weiss to strike back. _But how can I?_ she thought. _How can I hurt Ruby?_

Ruby took another swing at her, the scythe inching closer to her neck with each attack, and made a noise halfway between a growl and a cry. "Weiss I can't stop!" she choked out, the last bits of silver fading from her eyes.

"No!" Weiss cried, flinging herself forward during a lull in combat. She smashed the hilt of her rapier into Ruby's gut and felt her soft belly crush under the pressure. No aura to protect her. Weiss clutched the front of Ruby's shirt with one hand and pulled the other one back. _Crack_! Her dust-enhanced slap rang through the forest above the din of nearby Beowolves. "Don't give up!" she screamed into her partner's face. "You can beat this!"

But Ruby was past words, only able to mouth nonsense at her while her body, seemingly oblivious to pain, lashed out, hitting Weiss square in the ribs and throwing her back before reeling in for another, still more focused slash. The scythe fell and rose, sliding through trees and licking the tips of Weiss' hair while inching ever closer to her flesh. Weiss slid once, twice, thrice to avoid the deadly blade, her instincts kicking in and throwing a riposte automatically. Ruby screamed in pain as the white blade dug into her shoulder and Weiss froze. What had she done? "Ruby!" she screamed. Had she really just stabbed her partner? But Ruby's face twisted into a grimace and she dropped into a low, practiced stance, swinging the scythe around her in a vicious arc and jamming it into Weiss' wounded side.

Weiss screeched and collapsed backwards, barely managing to deflect another blow in time to roll away. Ruby slashed again but Weiss was already on her feet, fighting back tears and streaking through the forest. _I have to get back to the car¸_ she thought, pushing all of her pain aside, _I have to call Yang._ The rocks and trees were dense, dense enough to throw her off the trail back for full seconds at a time and allow Grimm Ruby to close the gap. Despite Weiss' lightning dust and time dilation Ruby was gaining on her. The Grimm just got access to her semblance.

But Weiss could see the car just over the ridge and smiled despite herself as a glimmer of hope found its way into her heart. Then Ruby cut her leg.

Crescent Rose slid down her shin, stripping Weiss' aura and skinning her down to her foot. She fell in a disjointed heap, tumbling head over heels across the last span before their car until her back connected with it, crushing the air from her lungs with a lurid _wham_ and throwing Myrtenaster from her fingers. She choked and time slowed as the dilation caught up with her, leaving her helpless to watch as Grimm Ruby, still in full-sprint, dropped the scythe on her.

The steel hissed as it whirled through the air and shrieked as it hit the car behind her. Weiss stared up at Ruby's furious grimace, watching as the Grimm tore ineffectually at the scythe, which was too deeply embedded in the car to be of use to it. "Ruby," she winced, the last dregs of artificial energy leaving her body numb as it washed away. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she watched Ruby monstrously growl and shriek through clenched teeth as though she'd never been human but always a monster. Grimm Ruby glared down and locked eyes with her. "I'm so sorry, Ruby," Weiss cried before the monster fell on her, bashing her chest with closed fists and tearing at her face with cracking nails.

Weiss fought back with all her strength, curling up as Grimm Ruby gnashed and roared at her, her solid red eyes scanning for weaknesses in her fading aura and her teeth clamping on stray bits of hair. Weiss was fading fast and cold started creeping up her legs. She could just see her weapon through the flurry of punches and reached with all her strength, clasping it through sheer force of will and pulling it to her side.

Ruby was her best friend and partner of ten years. She'd been by her side through her family's collapse and had helped Weiss drag her name back from the brink of taboo. Weiss was there at her wedding and there for her husband's funeral. They'd fought together, shed blood together, and were friends closer than sisters but now, as Weiss stared into the monstrous mask that was her friend, she knew what Ruby would want her to do. She knew what she had to do.

Weiss brought her weapon up and watched Grimm Ruby hiss and snatch at it, ignoring how deep it cut her hands while she bent the tip and snapped the blade clean in half. But Weiss didn't need it. With the last strand of energy left in her, she opened her free hand, tightening her fingers and focusing her semblance around them, making her whole hand go cold and rigid like steel ringed with snowflakes. She concentrated her semblance under her elbow and propelled her arm straight through Ruby's chest.

The monster's jaw fell open as it stared at the arm stuck through its body and for a long moment both of them were still. Weiss wasn't sure if the Geist could switch bodies when injured like this but the simple fact that it hadn't yet tried to possess her meant she'd caught it off guard and if ever there were a time to finish it off, now was that time.

Weiss clutched the dagger-sized remainder of her Myrtenaster and jammed it between Grimm Ruby's ribs. Then again. Then again. And again. _Thuck, thuck, thuck,_ the blade squelched into the Grimm's lungs with each stab. _Shuck, shuck, shuck,_ the blade carved into its ribs with horrible efficiency. Grimm Ruby growled as a gurgle of blood and bile spilled from its lips and finally collapsed. But as the creature's red eyes faded, something gave and Weiss could hear her friend speak through the blood dripping from her mouth. "Thank you," she said, her voice barely a hollow whisper. "Goodbye, Weiss." She stopped moving and Weiss wailed in agony.

[Author's Notes] I'm sorry to the few of you who read this. My wife was seriously injured in December and had to be hospitalized. Right after that we moved to California and have been dealing with medical stuff and moving stuff for the last few weeks. In the hubbub I honestly forgot about Rosmyrta but I'll be better about it now that things are calming down. Last update next week (Saturday, probably). Thank you kindly. -Wilson


	5. Chapter 5

Weiss stared up at the sky, the pouring rain stinging her eyes and muffling the screaming. Yang hadn't stopped since she heard the truth. Knowing what happened was one thing but hearing it again brought the pain back in droves. Weiss knew she was past consoling and knew too well what would come next. She'd seen Yang break people in half for hurting her sister and now she could only imagine what would happen to Ruby's confessed murderer.

Murder. Weiss looked down at her blood-soaked hand, the one she'd pierced Ruby with, and recoiled at the sight. She was a monster, there was no doubt. She killed Ruby to save her own skin without a thought and spent days running from that fact. She'd thought to escape punishment like a coward. To run as long as she needed to, spend her life running. So, in a way, this was refreshing. Yang would save her a lifetime of fear and regret; a life without her best friend. Yang could end her pain here and she'd get to see Ruby again. _Seriously?_

Weiss looked over to her friends, former friends as it were. Blake, now at her partner's side, glared hopelessly at Weiss, her yellow eyes glinting in the dimming light. "Why?" she asked finally. "Why would you kill Ruby?"

Weiss opened her mouth several times, fighting with herself over what to say before deciding the truth wouldn't make her death any more horrible. "I was protecting myself," she said, fighting back more tears and a swell of bile at the back of her throat. "She was possessed and came at me-"

"Liar!" Yang roared, cutting her off. Yang wiped her red eyes and pushed to her feet while the air around her burned. Before long a geyser of steam erupted from every raindrop that touched her skin. " _Wretched liar_!" she screamed through clenched teeth. _No._ "Vile monster!" _That's not true._ "Evil freak!" Yang ground her foot into the dirt and steadied herself, one arm braced in a fighting position. "I'll kill you!"

Weiss trembled but nodded slowly because despite everything they'd been through, despite the adventures and the fun they'd shared, despite all of it, Weiss knew she'd taken the one thing Yang valued over all others; the one thing she couldn't replace. "Yang, stop," Blake said, "this isn't…" She fell silent as Yang shot a painful glare at her. "T-this is Weiss," she pressed through, albeit hesitantly.

Yang didn't even acknowledge her this time and Weiss felt the pressure from Yang's aura expand around her. "I'll kill you!" Yang screamed again and Weiss had to fight the urge to raise her weapon, reminding herself that she'd resigned to this. There was no more running. There was no more fighting. There would be justice. Penance. Peace. _No!_

"I'LL KILL YOU!" The ground shook and Yang threw herself forward, rocketing through the air at Weiss. _Fight!_ Weiss closed her eyes, raising her arms in resignation. _Fight back!_ Weiss would see Ruby again. _Fight back!_

Weiss' eyes snapped open and she fell, her body reacting on its own as a ball of molten death blazed over her, missing by inches. In a flash, she spun around and drew Rosmyrta against Yang, barely able to deflect another blow aimed to remove her head. _Yes!_ Screamed the voice in her head, one she'd barely known was there. "No!" bellowed Yang as she threw herself into another barrage of murderous intent.

Tears flew from Weiss' eyes with each dodge and rain flicked from her blade with each parry. Yang wasn't letting up and, especially after running so far and using so much semblance, Weiss knew she'd be no match for the blonde eruption. Any one of these attacks would have broken her and she'd tire long before her opponent. So why was she fighting?

She slid under a frenzied punch and tore at Yang's aura with her blade. She'd murdered Ruby and ran. She summoned her giant's sword and swiped it viciously, bashing Yang from in front of her. She'd failed her best friend, leaving her body on the side of the road. She ducked another blow to her throat. She'd tried to escape punishment.

Yang roared at her, her aura blazing like wildfire and Weiss retreated, backstepping with every lunge and using Rosmyrta's hook to guide each semblance-enhanced blow to one side. Except the last one.

Weiss' shoulder exploded in agony and she sailed backwards, her limp body ragdolling off boulders and through at least one tree though the horrible snapping her bones made told her it could have been several. She came to rest several hundred meters away, her aura flickering and fading and her shattered arm twitching, its vice grip on Rosmyrta reduced to a limp clasp. She screamed but no sound came from her throat and she blinked as blood dribbled from her forehead over her eyes. _Weiss!_

She was dead. Or so close to death that it should have been easy to just slip into it. But her body, no matter how broken, no matter how utterly useless, refused to stop struggling. Pain ripped through her spine as she tried to move and she fell limp again, each muscle twitching like a smashed insect.

She couldn't see, blood and stars blurred her vision beyond repair, but she didn't need her eyes to know Yang was upon her again, landing just meters from her and approaching her slowly. She couldn't hear, eardrums broken and ear canals flooded from the trauma, but she didn't need her ears to know Yang was still screaming at her, berating her for murdering Ruby. She couldn't feel, her nerves blinded by the impossible amount of pain she'd just endured, but she didn't need to feel when Blake arrived behind Yang, still pleading despite the hopeless situation.

The seconds passed in a blur and she knew she was broken. None of her limbs responded to her command, none of her senses functioned. She faded into black.

Or she would have, if not for the distinct white light that burned in the back of her mind, filling her consciousness and forcing breath into her ragged lungs. _"I've got you, Weiss,"_ a voice, previously ignored, said from inside her. _"I've got you, partner."_

Yang raised her fist in a fit of rage, thunder exploding from her throat as she cursed the small, broken woman at her feet. But before the final blow was struck, Weiss' semblance went off of its own accord and a figure, lightning fast and shining white like a winter's sun, rammed into Yang's chest, throwing her back and leveling a broken scythe to her head. Weiss' partially-blind eyes snapped open and took in the impossible sight, tears washing away dirt and blood to reveal Ruby, tall and strong as she'd ever been, standing before her, protecting her.

The world stopped spinning and only the pouring rain indicated any passing of time as they all stared at the glowing white summon. "Ruby," Weiss gasped, her voice barely more than a coarse whisper. Ruby turned to her and smiled sadly, kneeling to brush grime and blood from her friend's face. Weiss tried to smile, still not sure she hadn't just died, and tried to reach out to her, her broken hands spasming but otherwise unable to move.

Ruby, understanding, reached out and took her trembling hand. "Shh," she breathed, calming the trembling woman, "I'll protect you." She stood to her full height, again pointing her scythe at Yang. "Stand down, sister," she commanded.

EPILOGUE

Blake cradled the crumpled Weiss in her arms, sniffing back tears through dripping apologies. She slid her as gently as she could into the car, cushioning her head with a spare jacket and trying to pat her dry with the tail of her own coat before closing the door. Ruby was still there, standing back with Yang as the two of them spoke. But Ruby was fading fast now that Weiss was asleep and they all knew they needed a hospital above all else. Blake watched as Ruby vanished and Yang trudged to her.

"Blake," Yang said, her voice barely a whisper and her eyes pleading, "I'm so sorry. You tried—"

"No," Blake cut in, glancing through the car window and wiping a tear, "I didn't try anything; not really. I was going to stand by and watch her die."

"But I was going to kill her!" Yang cried, crumbling. "I _tried_ to kill her!"

"Yang…"

"I'm a monster," she concluded, peering into the window. "And she'll never forgive me."

Neither spoke.


End file.
